The disclosure relates to providing edge protection to a glass substrate that has been ion-exchanged (“IOX”) at the mother sheet level and the mother sheet is either (1) (i) cut as-is into a plurality smaller glass articles for use as cover glasses or (ii) cut into a plurality of smaller glass articles followed by the application of electronic elements applied to the individual smaller glass articles to form fully integrated touch (“FIT”) devices, or (2) electronic elements are applied to the ion-exchanged mother sheet followed by cutting the mother sheet having the electronic elements thereon to produce a plurality of identical FIT articles from a single mother sheet of glass.
FIG. 1a illustrates both items (1) (i) and (1) (ii) in the foregoing paragraph. For item (1) (i), a mother sheet 10 is cut (numeral 12) into a plurality of glass articles 10a-10l (illustrated) and edge protection is placed around the individual cut articles, for example article 10a, as indicated by the step of numeral 16, to form an edge protect article exemplified by 10ap (where “p” means the article is “edge protected”) in which the edge protection is the heavy black line 18 circumscribing article 10ap. Alternatively, for (1) (ii), the individual glass article 10a can have electronic elements placed thereon as represented by the arrow of numeral 11 to form an individual article having electronic elements thereon as is represented by 110a in FIG. 1b. FIG. 1b illustrates approach (2), the “integrated” approach, in which a mother sheet 110 is subjected to a lithographic process to form a plurality of touch sensor elements 110a-110l on the sheet, and the sheet is then cut in step 112 to separate the individual integrated cover-glass/touch-sensors such as the illustrated article 110a, and edge protection is placed around the individual cut articles, for example article 110a, as indicated by the step of numeral 116, to form an edge protect article exemplified by 110ap in which the edge protection is the heavy black line 118 circumscribing article 110ap. 
Ion-exchanged glass has an outer surface area under compressive stress (“CS”) that produces a central tension (“CT”) area in the interior of the glass. The problem for cover glass articles or FIT articles made by the foregoing processes is that if the exposed CT area of the articles is impacted, the articles can crack for a distance from the impact area or, if the impact force is large enough, can shatter. Several techniques have been tried to strengthen the edge of the glass. One approach has been to acid etch the glass edges to gain strength. Other methods have been described in US Patent Application Publications 2010-0285260, 2010-285277 and 2010-0221501 which include protecting the glass edge(s) using polymer overmolding, a machinable metal armor layer laid over the edge(s), polymer tapes and liquid polymers, or a shaped fiber such as a glass fiber. However, each has proven unsatisfactory for varying reasons such as they were labor intensive, were not susceptible to automation, required additional processing steps which increased costs, or the edge protection material had to be molded over the edge onto the face of the article which is undesirable from aesthetic and tactile viewpoint. This disclosure presents a method that overcomes such deficiencies.